The apparatus described herein relates generally to turbomachinery and, more specifically, to a fixture for restraining a turbine wheel during a blade removal or installation procedure.
Turbomachines need regular maintenance to keep up with the cycle type, in which some cases are continuous (6,000 hours/year or more). During an inspection maintenance outage, the blades in the turbine section of the turbomachine may need to be replaced. The top half of the turbine case is removed, and technicians will restrain the rotor from rolling and begin to remove or replace the turbine blades. To restrain the rotor, technicians have tied a strap around a blade and then attached it to somewhere in the turbine compartment. This known method could result in near miss or incidents which involve the rotor rolling due to a broken strap, as well as damage caused to the blade. The known method that uses a strap presents a risk of injury, safety concerns, as well as requiring possible replacement parts due to hardware damage.